B5
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 2021
Blockbuster movie comes to Netfl ix Fasting prayer for Lent
By KYLE SPURR
The Bulletin
Before two Bend fi lm-
makers created their docu-
mentary “The Last Block-
buster,” they thought it
would be funny if their
movie appeared on Netfl ix.
As the most popular
streaming service in the
world, Netfl ix led to the
demise of video rental stores
such as Blockbuster, which
went from about 9,000
stores at its peak to just one
off Third Street in Bend.
Starting Monday, the
unexpected will happen. The
Blockbuster documentary
will be available on Net-
fl ix. The fi lm, which director
Taylor Morden created with
fi lmmaker Zeke Kamm, is
expected to be on the plat-
form for at least a year.
“The irony is not lost
on us,” Morden said. “Net-
fl ix and Blockbuster had
a fascinating relationship
and that’s a big part of the
story we are telling with the
documentary.”
Morden and Kamm
pitched their fi lm to Net-
fl ix through their distribu-
tor, 1091 Pictures. The fi lm
frames Netfl ix as the antago-
nist that dominated the home
video marketplace so it was
a strange pitch, Morden said.
“We knew it was weird to
say, ‘Hey Netfl ix we made a
movie. You are kind of the
bad guys in the movie, but
we still think your audience
would get a kick out of it,’”
Morden said.
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
Filmmakers Zeke Kamm, left, and Taylor Morden photographed
ahead of the world premiere of their documentary ‘The Last
Blockbuster,’ which debuted at BendFilm’s pop-up drive-in
theater in Bend in July.
The documentary high-
lights how Netfl ix did not act
maliciously. The company
simply made better busi-
ness decisions and changed
the way people enjoy home
movies by allowing them
to choose fi lms from home
rather than travel to a video
rental store.
In fact, the fi lm details
how Blockbuster had a
chance to buy Netfl ix.
“Through some amount
of hubris and arrogance,
Blockbuster decides it
doesn’t need it,” Mor-
den said. “Netfl ix rises to
become the dominant force
in home video entertain-
ment. Then fast forward to
2021, and our little docu-
mentary about how all that
happened is on Netfl ix.”
Beyond the business
side of Blockbuster, the
fi lm explores the nostalgia
around video stores and how
the Bend location outlasted
all the other Blockbusters.
The fi lm follows Bend
Blockbuster manager Sandi
Harding as she learns her
store became the last on
Earth. The only other Block-
buster in Perth, Australia,
closed in March 2019.
Morden, a director, cine-
matographer and editor who
has mostly made indepen-
dent documentaries in his
career, said it is a thrill for
him and Kamm to have their
documentary end up on a
worldwide platform such as
Netfl ix.
“Getting anything on
Netfl ix or any major stream-
ing platform is a huge deal,”
Morden said. “This is the
Hollywood ending for Zeke
and I.”
Dear Annie: Recently, I came across went, despite hardly being involved in
this poem. I’ve seen it attributed to Pope his life.
I was slighted during the event, in
Francis — not sure whether he actually
said it. In any case, I thought you might keeping with what our relationship had
turned into, but I was strong. I
share it with your readers. You
have that milestone, a univer-
don’t have to be Catholic to get
DEAR
sal and timeless tradition in my
something out of them.
ANNIE
memory. My only daughter actu-
“Do you want to fast this Lent?
ally told me I would not be com-
/ Fast from hurting words and
ing to her wedding, and I was
say kind words. / Fast from sad-
absent. Today, my son is dead,
ness and be fi lled with gratitude. /
and I have no regrets because I
Fast from anger and be fi lled with
have that moment in my mem-
patience. / Fast from pessimism
ory of his short life. The awkward
and be fi lled with hope. / Fast from
worries and have trust in God. / ANNIE LANE moments have faded. Perhaps
Creators
they should read Karl Pillemer’s
Fast from complaints and contem-
Syndicate Inc.
“Fault Lines, Fractured Families
plate simplicity. / Fast from pres-
and How to Mend Them,” before
sures and be prayerful. / Fast from
bitterness and fi ll your heart with joy. / they go. They are not alone and maybe
Fast from selfi shness and be compassion- their presence will be a turn in the rela-
ate to others. / Fast from grudges and tionship. For whatever reason, the son
be reconciled. / Fast from words and be has made the fi rst move. The couple will
likely be having their grandchildren.
silent so you can listen.” — Gran
Dear Gran: That wisdom is certainly They don’t want to keep the door closed
universal — and more needed than ever. on the possibility “RSVPP” will share in
that joy. Life, as I learned, is unpredict-
Thanks for writing.
Dear Annie: You were so right to able. — A Mother Always
Dear AMA: I am so sorry for the loss of
encourage “RSVPP” to attend the son’s
wedding, despite the estrangement. My your son. Your insights are valuable, and
son invited me to his wedding, and I I appreciate the book recommendation.
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DEL’S O.K. TIRE
Cascade snowpack more vulnerable
to climate change, study suggests
By BRADLEY W. PARKS
Oregon Public Broadcasting
New research suggests
mountain snowpack in the
Cascades is among the most
vulnerable in the U.S. to the
effects of climate change.
Researchers with the
Scripps
Institution
of
Oceanography at the Uni-
versity of California, San
Diego say warming will
likely hit coastal mountain
ranges like the Cascades
much harder than their
northern inland neighbors.
“What’s happening in the
Cascades is even a small
amount of warming has this
huge impact on the amount
of time that the tempera-
ture’s really cool enough to
have snow on the ground,”
climate scientist and lead
author Amato Evan said.
Each winter, snow cov-
ers the region’s moun-
tains in a thick white blan-
ket. That snow melts as the
weather heats up until even-
tually, at some point during
the spring or summer, the
mountains are virtually bare
— save for the glaciers that
clad several peaks in ranges
like the Cascades. That day
will get earlier and earlier
on average as the planet
warms.
The researchers hypoth-
esize snow in the Cascades
will melt up to a month ear-
lier than it does now with
warming of 1 degree Cel-
sius. The same change in
temperature would only
shift when the snow melts in
the Rockies by a day or two.
Evan said that’s because
of how temperature varies
from place to place.
“If you take a big moun-
tain and you put it next to an
ocean, the swings between
the wintertime cools and the
summertime highs, they’re
not super dramatic com-
pared to if we go look at an
interior region like in the
Rockies,” Evan said.
In other words, if that one
degree of warming is a peb-
ble, the Cascades are a still
pond. Any disruption to the
status quo in the Cascades
will be more noticeable.
Mountain snowpack is
one indicator of how much
water will be available in
any given year. The ideal is
to have a lot of snow in the
winter melt slowly through-
out the course of the year.
That way, water manag-
ers can better predict when
and how much water will be
available to use for drinking
water, irrigation, recreation
and more. A stable water
supply is also critical for
plant and animal life.
Think of mountain snow-
pack like a bank.
“If you start drawing
down that bank prema-
turely or you’re not putting
enough snow in that bank,
that hits us,” Evan said.
“That depletes our water
resources that we have in
the Western U.S.”
Smaller and faster-melt-
ing snowpack can also
increase wildfi re risk and
invite invasive species,
Evan added.
“We’re
essentially
shrinking our winter sea-
son and we’re growing
that season during which
we can have wildfi res. And
that, to me, is really, really
alarming.”
Researchers made their
hypotheses using a model
based on nearly four
decades’ worth of snow-
pack, temperature and pre-
cipitation data at more than
400 sites across the West.
They theorize snowpack
is most vulnerable near
the West Coast, in central
Europe and in South Amer-
ica. In their model, warming
affects snowpack less in the
northern interior regions of
North America, Europe and
Asia.
The study was pub-
lished March 1 in the jour-
nal Nature Climate Change.
Oregon’s latest water
supply outlook report shows
most basins with normal or
above-normal
snowpack
heading into spring. Much
of southern Oregon entered
March with a below-normal
snowpack. More than 80%
of the state was abnormally
dry or worse as of March
2, according to the U.S.
Drought Monitor.
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